Multiple outlets are reporting that Joe Girardi has signed a new deal to remain manager of the Yankees. It is a four-year pact worth $4-million per year with playoff bonuses added on.

This is a great first step for a team that did not need any other obstacles this offseason. Girardi provides them with stability at the top and he has shown a knack for developing relievers, something that the team will definitely need next year. The Yankees were smart to open the checkbook for Girardi and they are still getting a pretty good deal. It’s worth remembering that Joe Torre made $7.5 million in his last year with the team and turned down a deal for $5-million with playoff bonuses in 2007.

Now comes the hard part. Plenty of decisions to be made regarding free agents, arbitration and the future. I will be sharing my thoughts starting next week.

11 Comments

MitchellOct 09, 2013 @ 20:17:00

I noticed something in the presser that I found interesting: Girardi graduated from Northwestern with a degree in Industrial Engineering.

The man is obviously bright enough to have been accepted as a Wildcat (well, Wildcats aren’t nearly as bright as your typical Wolverine but certainly significantly smarter than a Buckeye) and he is schooled in an engineering discipline. Smart guy and, grammar gaffs excepted, it shows.

Your comments about Girardi’s engineering background and grammatical shortcomings reminded me of my undergraduate days in engineering school. At the time there was a humorous fictitious résumé circulating amongst us. It was supposed to be representative of a typical engineering student. The engineering GPA (pertaining only to the science/math/engineering classes) was quite high, about 3.8 or so, but the overall GPS (pertaining to all courses) was quite a bit lower, about 2.5 or so, the implication being that it was brought down by the non-science/math/engineering courses (you know, such as English). It was full of comically bad grammatical and spelling errors — really funny stuff. There was a line somewhere on some associated document (perhaps on the email subject line) to the effect “All these years I studied so hard to be an engineer and now I are one!”. There was always a sort of contempt for so-called “fluff” courses like English and History. Even then I felt that was misguided. I imagine some of these folks found out the hard way that if you want to succeed, technical knowledge alone is not enough. Your spoken and written verbal skills must also be adequate.

In a former career line, I worked with and then managed some intensely bright engineers who created or crafted some incredibly detailed and wonderful products. They amazed me with their focus and their drive. They also amazed me with their utter lack of social and interpersonal communication skills, both written and spoken. At first I thought that they were pulling a joke on me and then I realized that (sigh) they simply were “like that”.

Yes, if you wanted to move up the corporate food chain, your nouns and verbs had to line up properly, your verb conjugations needed to be correct, and if you relied solely on spell checker to catch your screw ups before you broadcast out to the planet – well that was surely going to cause some major cringes as well. Some eventually figured this out, some don’t care enough to figure it out and some remained utterly clueless.

You do realize that schools like MIT actually offer senior level courses that cover the various social graces required during interviews, business meetings and business dinners? Yes, down to the “which fork for salad” question and how to handle cloth napkins? They also discuss things like dressing for success. This amazes me but at least SOMEONE realizes that there’s a an issue and is trying to deal with it. Also, major undergrad B schools now have special “writing for executives” courses for communicating properly and concisely up and down the management chain.

I actually have been asked to come in as a guest lecturer to talk to local high school students about “the do’s and don’ts” of working in a business setting. And every damn time I do, zero exceptions, there is also someone who provides me with a few “you’re fired” examples for the class? Someone blushes and the rest of the class suddenly “gets it”.

Leave it to MIT to blaze the trail! I suppose Caltech can’t be far behind . . .

In my 25+ years toiling in corporate America, it has never ceased to amaze just how many college graduates — including those with Masters degrees and even doctorates — are incapable of constructing a grammatically error-free paragraph that coherently and unambiguously conveys the idea they are trying to communicate. Scary stuff. Then again, if you pay attention to the content of newspaper articles and editorials, you’ll notice basic grammatical errors — mistakes I was taught to avoid way back in, oh, the sixth grade or so. That’s pretty sad considering they’re paying editors to detect and correct such mistakes. Don’t even get me started on how many cashiers in supermarkets can’t do basic arithmetic. Subtraction is apparently the bane of their existence . . .

In all seriousness, I blame spell check and word processing. Remember handwriting lessons in school? You had to have a semblance of penmanship, you had to spell words correctly, and you had to learn how to write a decent sentence. Now they don’t really teach any of that. (And don’t get me started on what texting is doing to spelling and grammar.)

In graduate school now I was shocked to find that one of my required classes was a communications class. It was basically a freshman writing seminar.

That’s always been a sore spot with me. MLB’s own Oakland Athletics are a primary example of that. They call themselves the “Oakland A’s”. What’s that apostrophe doing there? The apostrophe-S combination is used to convey the notion of possession; it does not pluralize a noun. Oh well, if the Oakland A’s’ owners want to be grammatical degenerates, ain’t nothing can’t be done about it.